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Revision as of 19:40, 31 October 2005 by Microtonal (talk | contribs) (clarity)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Eric "Hank" Gathers (February 11, 1967 in Philadelphia – March 4, 1990 in Los Angeles) was an American college basketball star at Loyola Marymount University who collapsed and died during a game.
In the 1988-89 season, he became the second player in history to lead NCAA Division I in scoring and rebounding in the same season, averaging 32.7 points and 13.7 rebounds per game. Although he was unquestionably a strong NBA prospect, his statistics were to a degree inflated by the offense Loyola Marymount employed. LMU's coach at that time, Paul Westhead, had instituted an extraordinarily fast-paced game plan. On offense, the Lions took numerous three-point shots and typically shot the ball within 10 seconds of gaining possession; their defense was a full-court press designed to force their opponents into a frenzied up-and-down game.
Gathers's first sign of weakness came on December 9, 1989, when he collapsed during an LMU home game against UCSB. He was found to have an abnormal heartbeat, and was prescribed a beta blocker. However, he felt that the medication adversely affected his play, and soon cut back on his dosage, against medical advice. On 4 March, he would collapse again with 13:34 left in the first half of a West Coast Conference tournament semifinal game against Portland, just after scoring on an alley-oop dunk that put the Lions up 25-13. This time, he never got up, and was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. An autopsy found that he suffered from a heart muscle disorder, cardiomyopathy.
Legacy
As a result of Gathers's death, the 1990 WCC tournament was suspended, and Loyola Marymount was given the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament (as a #11 seed) due to their regular season championship. During LMU's subsequent run to the Elite Eight, Gathers's best friend and teammate Bo Kimble (a right-handed player) shot his first free throw of each game left-handed in memory of Gathers (who was a southpaw), making all four attempts.
In 1992, Gathers's life was dramatized in a TV movie, as Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story.
Gersten Pavilion, LMU's on-campus athletics facility, is known to Lions fans as "Hank's House", although that isn't part of its official name. On 29 January 2005, members of Gathers's 1989-90 team, including Kimble, were inducted into the Loyola Marymount Hall of Fame during halftime of a 63-46 win over cross-town rival Pepperdine. Gathers's mother, Lucille Gathers Cheeseboro, also attended the ceremony.